The sun was shining down through the windows of Sy's room in the den. He was contemplating the man things that had happened as of late when he suddenly heard men yelling outside. Followed quickly by a woman's voice. He looked outside to see a massive hulking woman throwing his guards around. A few steps closer and Sy realized it was Viera, Burt's daughter. Sy quickly bolted down the stairs and out the front door before anymore of the men got hurt.

"Viera, whats going on?" Sy spoke to her in a calm yet concerned tone of voice. Though this didn't seem to calm her as she continued to thrash around battering the guards. "Viera, CALM DOWN!!!!! Tell me what is going on." Sy shouted at the massive woman on her rampage. His voice was enough to catch her off guard and she stopped. She looked at him and suddenly burst into tears.

"It.......It....... It's fath...........father......"She spoke between the gasps she took for air as she sat before Sy in tears. "He......is......no......not.......we.......well." The woman spoke yet again in between wails and gasps for air. Sy knew Burt was the only thing Viera had, and being the amazingly caring and kind soul she was this was taking a heavy toll on her.

"Very well, come walk with me. I will go see him, but Viera im not a medical genius. I have just started studying medicine, but I will put my full effort into this matter." Sy speech was hinder slightly by him hiding his worry. He may not care for much, but this practically raised him, and it would be improper to not state Sy's worry.

Upon arrival to the blacksmith house, Sy first noticed the iconic banging was gone. In fact the entire house was quiet for a change. This was the most unusual thing, as both Burt and Viera are loud. Sy looked over at Viera confused and she just pointed to the stairs and to Burt's room. Afterwards she just collapsed. Sy ran up the stairs as quickly as he could and entered the room. There he saw Burt covered in sweat barely breathing.

Sy quickly ran back downstairs into the shop and found a small cone shaped object that was open on both ends. Taking a nearby tube he cut a hole in the center of the tube and placed it over the smaller opening in the cone shaped object. From there he ran two pieces of metal from each open end of the to out and curved them inward to fit in his ears. He then placed a piece of rubber on each piece of metal. He had made himself a make shift stethoscope. This was something that was used to help hear the sounds of a person body internally. You could discover a lot about a person's insides with this.



With his makeshift medical device Sy ran back up stairs, on his way he grabbed a notebook and a pen. He sat there and just watched Burt for a second. Taking in every detail he could of Burt and jotting it down. He continued to watch for a another couple of minutes before putting the makeshift device up to Burt's chest where his heart should be.

*Thump..Thump..Thump..Thump..Thump..*

Okay everything seemed in order there. He checked his bowels and everything sound as it should according to the books Sy read. Finally his lungs, Sy placed the device over the upper right lungs and everything sounded fine. Upper left lungs once again everything was fine, but upon moving to the lower left lungs he could hardly hear anything. It sound as though air was moving through there but very very faintly. Just in case it was the device Sy moved back to the upper left lung, and nope it wasn't. He could hear that lung perfectly clearly. Moving on he tested the last lung the lower right lung and it was the same as the lower left lung. Well Sy at least knew the issue was in the lungs, but he would need knowledge to go from here.

Sy's Patient Journal:

Day 1: Afternoon.

Sy need information, and as much of it as he could get in a very short amount of time. His first thought was a bookstore, or library, but then he realized that a local clinic would house more immediate knowledge or even a cure. Burt seemed in stable condition and so Sy told Viera that he was heading out to find out more. He told her to watch him and should anything change she should just stay with him.

With his orders placed he walked off to the nearby market square. From there he knew his way to the nearest clinic, having been patched up there a time or two. Walking towards the clinic Sy began to notice the buildings in the area were rather breakdown, abandon, burning, or destroyed. Praying that the clinic still stood he kept walking as he watched his surroundings.

Arriving at the clinic it was no shock to Sy that the building was in disarray and parts of it had collasped or been destroyed. Luckily for him that meant no one was here, but the bad news maybe that no information was here either. Entering the clinic was simple aside from the fact that the entire front lobby was just gone. Walking through the rubble to the area that would be the back Sy hadn't noticed any files, paperwork, or books laying around. Further and further back he walked, it was one long hallway with a total of eight rooms on each side. The back room he assumed was the staff room.

His goal to reach the staff room. Maybe they keep information back there that could be help to him. Each room he passed was emptier and emptier. Until the last room on the right, in side was a perfectly intact human mannequin on a pole. Walking up to it he noticed there was all kinds of doors all over the mannequin, and upon opening them was an exact replica of what the flesh, veins, and bones would look like. It was the perfect study tool, even more so cause it opened into the abdominal and chest cavity. Revealing the heart, lungs, stomach, intestines, liver, etc... Sy decided he had best take it with him. Pushing his new study toy he entered the staff room.

Not super lucky but he found a few books. Commonly Used Medicines and Side Effects, The Detailed Guide to the Human Body, How to Preform an Autopsy, finally Doctor 101. Gathering the books, Sy walked out into the little garden area behind the staff room, or at least he thought it was a garden area. Turned out it was being used a graveyard, due to the events taking place in the city.

Not bothered by the gravestones that now sit all around him, Sy began to read. He started with The Detailed Guide to the Human Body. Which turned out to be very informative, and then progressed to How to Preform and Autopsy. During reading this he learned that if someone had died due to a specific illness recently they could be used to examine and find potential causes to the illness. Curious by this Sy began to look around him and read the gravestones. In the back he noticed a family of stones, four in total, with the same last name. Next to the eldest member of the family was listed that he was a famed blacksmith, and it appeared they were buried no more than four days ago. That means they wouldn't be to decomposed to examine.

With no further thought Sy began to dig using another broken tombstone. Sadly it wasn't long before he hit a body. Shallow graves, plus how empty the place was, led Sy to believe they abandon the building no more than four days ago either. Well no matter Sy dug up the eldest and his eldest son.  Looking at them both he had to guess that the eldest man was around fifties, and the younger one was mid twenties. Honestly not much older than him. Not wanting to remove them from their other family members, Sy looked around to see if there was another way he could do the autopsy here. After all, he only really needed the lungs.

Sy noticed a small small building not to far from him and the rest he walked and on the door it read morgue. Entering the small room he saw a table and most of the tools he would need to preform the task. It wasn't to far and he would be able to do a quick study here. Slowly he dragged the bodies over and into the building. Picking up the eldest man first he placed him on the table.

"Okay."Sy took a deep breathe as he picked up the scalpel. "One incision from right shoulder to mid chest, next incision from left shoulder to mid chest. Then straight down the middle of the abdomen lightly as not to do to deep." Slowing hard as the smell of the slowly decomposing organs hit him. "Okay." Stepping back he took a deep breathe. "Flip each side of the stomach open and then pectorals. From there i will have to crack up the ribs with th..........is." Sy stared at the massive pair of bone crackers which looked like giant weed scissors.

Slowly he pressed the massive scissors under the dead man's ribs and a loud crunch could be heard. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Few more crunches and Sy was done. Prying open the left cavity he could see the mans heart and lung. Moving the heart he grabbed the scalpel and cut the lungs from the trachea which what divides the two lungs. Taking out the left lung he placed it in a metal chest before sealing the eldest man back up. The same process was done on the younger man, but in much less time. After both lungs were removed Sy returned the bodies to their resting place and covered them.

At this time he noted it was getting dark, but he was nearly done. Walking back to the room he placed the lungs now in separate metal containers in the back corner where there was a secondary light to give better sight. Grabbing the micro scope and bringing it near he gently sliced the eldest mans lung splitting it open. Looking at he noted how the top half appeared very normal, but the bottom half looked very shriveled and sore. It wasn't dead or necrotic at least not according to Doctoring 101 as he was now using this as a reference point, but they weren't normal.

They appeared to just be badly damage and possibly non functioning due to that. Sy would get more answers after he looked at the younger mans lungs. The majority of it looked as though it was normal, but a very small amount near the lower lung was shriveled up. Could this be something that happens to Alubarna blacksmiths. The dry, hot air plus the heat and smoke/steam from blacksmiths. Could it be damaging their lungs permanently and is there a cure. Surely someone must have noted this somewhere.

In the corner Sy noticed a small journal. He picked it up before taking his new education pal Manny the mannequin, and himself to Burt's house. There he sat in Burt's room watching him all night. He took out his Journal and noted that there was no change in his condition. Reading the journal left in the morgue, he kept reading mention of some person name The Doctor. It would appear this person had been working on a large number of his more recent clients.

Sy's Patient Journal:

Day 2: The Doctor

Sy slept a few hours in between watching Burt as the night had progressed Burts breathing became more rapid, and shallow. When Sy listened to his lungs that morning they appeared to sound about the same, so it wasn't spreading but he was clearly getting worse. Sy remember from the Doctoring 101 book a simple recipe for a tincture that would calm some nerves and help him sleep. The best part was that the tincture was made from some very basic herbs. A quick run to the market and Sy had everything he would need.

The recipe was simple for a couple hours you want to boil the herbs in about sixteen ounces of water covered. After that you removed the leaves, place them in a windowsill to dry out and then continue to boil the tincture down until almost nothing remained. This made the reminder extremely potent. It was just a few drops but this would be enough to put Burt into a more calm sleep. Feeding it into the man's mouth with a baster he walked back downstairs, and filled a vial with a drop of the mixture. Then filled it with water and put the dry herbs into it. This would now sit in the window sill for a day and bam a secondary not quite as strong tincture.

Now with the tincture applied and Burt's breathing returning a slightly more normal state. Sy got back to business. His task for the door was to find the one they called The Doctor. The Doctor from what Sy read from the morticians journal seemed to work on a lot of criminals. So he clearly must be in a more rundown crime ridden side of town. He had his idea of where he could start looking. With a location in mind he headed out, hopefully not to his doom.

Big Ol'Charlies bar was a bar that bordered near the crime ridden ghetto and normalcy of Alubarna. Sy figured it would be the best place to start asking around. The bar was a decent size, and had many a customers. Though Sy seemed to be flaking out on anyone who had actually seen this The Doctor. Most people just thought he was an urban myth. This was when Sy came across a woman who had clearly been just downing the boozes since very early.

"Eh, The...............NOOOOOOOOO! I CAN'T! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" The woman screamed hysterically as she began to cry. "Please please...... don't make me go back there." Balling and drunk she attempted to run away but stumbled and fell directly onto her face. As Sy walked towards her she let a bone shrieking scream and point down a road. "Plus, sir, just she is that way."

Not evening bothering with the woman who was clearly freaking out and didn't want him near her. He walked past her without a word or glance, and head in down the street she point to. Sy wondered down the street when he noticed a couple of local thugs pass him by with some fresh bandages.  Taking the path they came from he wander further into the darker side of the city.

Constantly staying vigilant Sy looked around for signs of someone possibly planning to ambush him, because apparently The Doctor killed people. Which that in itself was already frightening to Sy. The further down the road he walked he began to notice a foul smell. Sy followed the smell as he recognized from his autopsy the previous night. It was the smell of rotting flesh.

The path so far had been pretty straight forward, or Sy had received some luck in finding his way, but now he stood at a fork in the road. The concern was Sy couldn't tell where the smell was stronger as a man lay dead against a building at the fork. It looked like he had been stitched up, but he smelled more foul than anything else. Some of the stitching had undone themselves due to the sheer volume of poop that had filled his abdominal cavity. Apparently someone tried to remove so of this mans intestines and something went wrong, and either it didn't stick, or they forgot entirely to stitch the other intestines to the stomach.

As Sy examined the mans body he noticed drops of blood leading down on path. His best if not his only option Sy began to follow them. It was a decent amount of time before Sy to a door in which the blood spattered had appeared to enter into. "Well this must be it. Here goes nothing." Sy mumbled to himself as he gave the door four good knocks.

Sy's Patient Journal:

Sy looked down to meet the gaze of the young woman who had answered the door. For a second there Sy was confused. From the way people talked about The Doctor and from what he read he assumed The Doctor was a man, but instead he was met by a young woman not to much shorter than he with brown hair, and an innocence tone.

One look over her and Sy could tell this woman had been through quite a bit. It was mostly in the eye's. They have a tendency to say more than we want them to, but her question was innocent enough and right on target. Sy of course sought the fame The Doctor to gather something.

"Well....Miss? Names Jack, and I've come to ask you some question of the medical variety." Sy lied about his name, because of the stories he had heard and this woman before was rather intimidating. "I've heard rumors that The Doctor lives here and I was hoping maybe you have seen or study a disease that seems to affect blacksmiths. It would appear as though the longer they are exposed to harsh heat of the furnace and dry, hot climate of Alubarna their lungs slow shrivel up and become  like tiny coals." Pausing for a second to give the young woman a chance to process what Sy had said he took a look into the room behind her.

The room was a bit dark, but it appeared rather unkempt with stuff just around. Not including some bits of blood here or there. The odor emanating from within the house was extremely foul. Two coughs and Sy was back to talking. "The tissue appears to still be alive, but is severely damaged, and from everything I have read and studied so far I cannot find any mention of it or a cure. So after reading this journal here I sought you out." Pulling out the medical journal of a mortician from a local clinic. The poor man had done many a autopsy on people who had died and been operated on by The Doctor. Not everyone was killed by an operation from The Doctor just everyone had had a procedures done by her within a week of death.

Sy honestly didn't want to come into her house, it reeked of death, but if she invited him and this being his only option for help he would.

Sy's Patient Journal:

The young woman before him had yet to even introduce herself, but yet was asking him to come in and look at what was a dead man cut open and before him. Some of the symptoms were not of note on the past two corpses that he had examined, but they had also been dead for well over four days. Whose to they didn't have these symptom and times just hide them. The only was to be sure was to slice open the lung and look at the inside of the lungs themselves. Grabbing the nearest sharp object he could. Placing the blade gently against the lung he made a crude but effective incision revealing the inside of the lung.

Stepping back for a second in shock. This man shared the same symptoms as the past two corpse that he had cut up, but from what the young lady had told him he was not a life long blacksmith. "This is odd, Miss. This man most certainly shares the same symptoms, but from what you were saying he was not a life long smithy. Hmmmmm." Sy stopped to ponder what this finding could me. There was a plethora of different outcomes that could come from this, but at this moment it would be best to consider this man an outlier to the rest of those Sy had examined already. "Miss, your theory of him being killed may not be wrong. It is possible that someone has formulated a poison that sped of the process or, even mimicks the symptoms of this disease."

"Look."He spoke as he pointed toward the tiny, shriveled, red/blackish bronchi in the majority of the lung. "This is the abnormality I most certainly saw in the other patients. This white powder however is not something that was in their lungs. If we know what blacksmith he was at that would be an even greater help, but I'm certain this man dead from something involving this disease."

Taking out another journal Sy began to jot down some more notes. There was a fine white powder substance coating the inside of his lungs. This was different from the corpse but once again its possible that they both had these symptoms and they went away after being dead for four days. "I don't supposed you have a living specimen. Its an odd request, but judging from the  view in this workshop you get bodies and a lot of them at least."

Sy looked down at the young lady, and then with a sudden movement remembered something important to the study. "Oh, it would great if you had a blacksmith we could use and a normal person, but once again I understand if you have no living specimens. However, if you did I have some tools I could bring here so we could do a more detailed autopsy of this mans body." Sy looked down inquisitively as he slow walked towards the door and away from the smell of death. He had no intentions to leave without an answer, just need a breather.

Sy's Patient Journal:

The Doctor told Sy that she would be able to obtain the specimens he required before wondering across the street. Not willing to waste this chance Sy waited for the young woman to come back, and hopefully with the specimens. Meandering around Sy just looked over the young doctors house, and work area. Briefly reading over bits of notes that had been left out, or barely covered. He realized through all this that the young doctor, much like himself was new to the field.

Sy's biggest advantage is the fact he can memorize things with extreme ease. He had been utilizing this to great degree in order to remember the way doctors and such would conduct research. It is one thing to have the knowledge of how to do something and another entirely to actually do it. He was lucky the first body he really had to ever cut up was a dead one. Made things much easier, but now he would have to try this experience out on a live person, or at least one that was recently deceased.

After a brief period of time, the young woman returned to the house and mentioned that what Sy had requested would be here within the hour. Sy nodded his and while walking to the door told the young woman he to would be back within the hour with some supplies.

Quickly Sy made his way to Burt house where he was able to gather up most of the supplies he had taken from the morticians office. He left Manny the mannequin as that was his study tool, but he made sure to take with him a microscope. Taking a brief second to check in on Burt he noticed that his breathing had maintained some normalcy and that he was still sound asleep. "hmmmm... maybe I gave him to much, no matter though he is still breathing." Sy jotted down in journal that there was no change in the concern of the patient and made his way back to The Doctors house.

Upon Sy's arrival some unsavory types were making their leave. Sy assumed it must have been how The Doctor got him the samples, and while not entirely okay with the idea of using outside resources it was something he would have to deal with, considering what he was asking for. Walking into the room Sy noticed three men standing there.

One appeared to be a blacksmith, and the other his assistant. Sy could tell from the slightly rugged breathing, and calloused hands what they were. The third man however just appeared to be a common criminal. All them were easily people that Sy had no issues with dealing with. He stepped forward to inspect them and noticed that each one had chains that lead from their hands to a nearby wall. Effective way of keeping them here for sure.

"First, we will look at the black smith." Sy undid the chain on the wall and brought him over to the table in the middle of the room. Pushed him forcefully onto it and re-chained him back up. This gave the man little to no room to move. Not being inhuman Sy walked over to the man and placed his elbow deeply into the mans neck cutting off his carotid artery. Within the minute the man was out cold. Sy them placed a book on the table in front of the young woman. "Give it a read, that is what I am going to be using to do this." A smirk stood across Sy's face as he pulled out the scalpel.

Cries came from the other two men. Things about how autopsy were meant to be done on dead people, and that we really shouldn't just be killing people off. Blah blah blah. Sy got into the zone and was able to tune them out as he made his cuts. He made mental notes that about this being far more difficult when blood flows from the body, but still the incisions were precise and quick so it wasn't to bad.

The next part however was far more gruesome and made the common criminal faint. That of course was the part of cracking open the ribs with a giant pair of weed cutter scissors. Crunch Crunch Crunch, and just a few more and bam there sat the mans beating heart. What a fascinating sight to behold. The heart was actively beating inside the mans chest gently Sy moved it so he could get to the lung. The outside while it had more color appeared the same as any lung, but that was no surprise, even the dead mans lung appeared normal on the outside.

Slowly Sy began to make an incision into the now dying mans lung. Noting that his breaths had become weaker and fewer Sy figured this man would not last long in this world. As such he stopped making the incision and with a quick swipe of the scalpel he cut the mans heart from his body. Shortly there after he removed the lung before his chest cavity filled with blood. He took the lung and cut it open.

The inside was as Sy expected it to be the entire lower half was shriveled, tiny, and more reddish with a hint of black. "See there." Sy pointing to the severely damaged tissue in the man's lung. In this man however there was no white powdered substance as there was in the previous man's in The Doctors house. "There must be someway to heal this tissue, but apparently this is what leads most blacksmiths to their deaths. Hmmmmm. Well shall you have a go." Sy pointed the blacksmiths apprentice as he spoke.

Just then the blacksmiths apprentice began to breath heavier and heavier before he finally passed out. His lips had begun to turn blue, and his entire body pale white. Even while unconscious he was barely breathing. Something clearly was affecting the boy.

Sy's Patient Journal:

The Doctor was very much solely equipped for cutting people up that was for sure. She even had sedatives on board, not that the poor assistant needed one, but he was going to die either way. The young woman seemed a bit shaken, but it wasnt cause of the cutting up the body. No, she had clearly done this many times before. Maybe it was due to the fact that this time she was trying to do so properly.

Sy noticed a slightly heavier press of the knife as The Doctor neared the young mans abdominal cavity. She managed to cut in to deep and nick the mans intestines. This caused far more blood that what Sy was used to seeing to poor out. He made a mental note of that for future endeavors. Everything else from there went rather smoothly, and now they had another lung to look at.

The apprentices lung had a a much smaller totally effected area, but over half his lung appeared to have been damage upon further inspection with a microscope. "It's the white powdered substance for sure. It must have some kind of property that has affect both of the people in here. Hmmmmmmm." Sy scrapped some into a beaker bottle for both himself and The Doctor to keep and look at.

"It would appear though as though this boy succumbed to the powder after the stress of the events happening in here went on. Maybe all of the stress lowered his body inner defense and the powder was able to take affect. This powder definitely warrants more study." Sy set the beaker with the substance for The Doctor down in front of her, before standing and walking over to the last subject.

"To prove my theory that the effects on most of the lungs is due to years working on a forge I need a final test subject that never worked on a forge. Time to make this quick." Sy grabbed him and pulled him to the table where he pushed assistant off. With a few quick strokes and some crunching followed by another few quick strokes they had their lung. Sy cut it open and nothing, it was perfectly healthy minus a small scar where he probably got stabbed in the past.

"Yes! Well there is the final nail in the coffin. This mans lungs are pristine and he hasn't even worked a day in his life I bet." Sy jumped as he noticed the mans lungs, this meant everything he had been working on so far has been correct, and now all that was left was to find a cure. Find a cure or something to at least hold the symptoms off for a bit.

"Young Miss, thank you for your assistance and collection of these fine samples for me. I will leave the extra powder sample here with you in case you wish to study it further, but for now I must bide you farewell. I have a man to look after." With that Sy collected his tools and began to walk towards the door. Making a quick stop to set down the microscope as he winked at The Doctor when he did so. With that Sy headed back to Burt's house.

On the way Sy noticed some wanted signs on the wall of the local tavern. He recognized the picture of The Doctor, and just sat there for a second shocked. "A 108 million bounty...." Sy mumbled as he stood there in shock. It would be a lie to say that the idea of telling the marines where she was located did not cross his mind, but it was quickly squished by the idea that if she wasn't caught he would be in her cross hairs as well.

Sy's Patient Journal:

Sy returned to Burts to be shocked by the man up and moving around. He seemed a bit slower than usual and wasn't as vibrant in his personality but he was up and moving. It was a shock of relief to Sy, but also one of confusion. Why was Burt up and moving, and how? His thoughts raced but he quelled them for a second as he walked over to the large man.

" I assume it was you helped me get this." Burt said chuckling." My lungs hurt like hell, son, and I have the worst headache of my life. I shall prevail though. I'm not feeling as strong as I would like to feel but what can I say." Burt smiled as he took a seat. Sy could tell being up was taking a toll on the elderly sick man.

Maybe Burt had a smaller easier to cure infection that Sy had missed, but the truth of the matter was that Burt had Coal Lung Disease, and it would kill him. Unless of course Sy could find a cure before it did that, but how long did he even have. So many question and no knowledge of time. Everything was against Sy and Burt needed to just rest more, but Sy knew he wouldn't. After all the man was incapable of rest.

The two men sat at the table and conversed well into the night. It was still a very clear struggle for Burt to continue talking, and after a few hours he relieved himself to bed. There was a sudden crash and Sy got up and ran to the stairs to find Burt laying on the stairs passed out. If only for a few seconds and suddenly Burt came to and with great effort stood himself up and walked into the bedroom.

Burt was not cured nor free of the effects. He was just simply doing somewhat better. The thought that maybe something in the sleep tincture helped in subverting the symptoms did come to Sy's mind and now it was time to investigate, but first he would make a small book about this disease so he could begin recording the effects of the disease, and maybe cure all blacksmiths from an untimely death due to this sickness.

The Coal Lung Disease as Sy would now call it. Would be something he would spend the next few months searching for a cure for starting with the white powder substance he found in the lungs of those two dead men at The Doctors, and as well as investigating the herbs he used in the sleep tincture.

The Coal Lung Disease.:

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